Entertainment

Bill Nye the Science Guy Guesses How Superman Shaves in 'Man of Steel'

Clark Kent transforms from a bearded man to the clean-shaven Superman in the upcoming Man of Steel movie. In some tales, Superman must reflect his heat vision off his Kryptonian ship or mirror to remove his facial hair, which is known to be as durable as his strong body.

But how else could Superman shave on Earth? Bill Nye, famously dubbed "The Science Guy," tackles the question in a video for Gillette's new #HowDoesHeShave advertising campaign.

"Keep in mind that there is some way to use things that aren't as hard as the thing to shape the thing — that's the grinding operation," Nye told Mashable. "Airplane tires land on the end of the runway, squeak every time, smoke comes off every time, yet the end of the runway wears out ... How is that possible? Not magic, my friend. It's what? Science!"

Gillette roped in other celebrities to offer their theories, but Nye says his is the one to believe.

"The reason it's number one is because it's correct," he said, "the other ones I'm not so sure — they're OK and they're charming."

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People on Twitter have already tossed in their guesses using hashtag #HowDoesHeShave, but Nye offers this piece of advice to future participants:

"Whatever theory you're going to come up with with how this guy was able to shave has to be consistent with the constraints of the storytelling and that to me is consistent with science," Nye says. "Whatever theory you come up has to be consistent with the physical laws of the world we discover around us."

Mashable also asked Nye other related questions in this Q&A. Be on the lookout later for our Q&A in which we discuss social media, Kickstarter, NASA's Curiosity rover, how to pronounce GIF and Rush Limbaugh's recent comment saying Nye isn't a scientist.

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